Rock shox maxle light is a axle Killer

eater said:

FYI,
maxle light is a hope pro2 axle killer!
for take out the wheel from the shocker rear i cut the maxxle quick closure
hope do not garantie

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Yep, I've had this EXACT problem, had to cut the Maxle QR off to get it out too. The central bearing in the hub is completely unsupported by the Maxle because it's tapered in the middle, which leads the hub to snap its own internal axle. Brilliant design there SRAM, you managed to f**k up the axle... again.

hahah its what happens when you wanna cut down on weight, thats the idea behind the tappered axle. Also, the loads are normally placed on the ends not in the middle, since these are the spots where all the lateral loads are applied. A central bearing doesnt make that much sense, but is still performs a duty of displacing the forces through the axel?

eater said:

FYI,
maxle light is a hope pro2 axle killer!
for take out the wheel from the shocker rear i cut the maxxle quick closure
hope do not garantie

Click to expand...

That will happen to a 12mm Hope hub even without a taperred down axle. I have had two of them do that.

Sam B said:

That will happen to a 12mm Hope hub even without a taperred down axle. I have had two of them do that.

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Yup, I've seen that as well. Maybe Hope should use a stronger alloy for their internal hub axles.

Glad someone came back to reality that it is Hopes problem and not SRAM's. Buy some Hadleys, or Chris Kings.

Skip the hope junk ( and by this I mean their hub products, haven't had any good luck with any of them in the last 12 years.

Their brakes on the other hand are awesome.

BikeFan84 said:

Glad someone came back to reality that it is Hopes problem and not SRAM's. Buy some Hadleys, or Chris Kings.

Skip the hope junk ( and by this I mean their hub products, haven't had any good luck with any of them in the last 12 years.

Their brakes on the other hand are awesome.

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Their seat clamps are high performance too.

Mmmm, I'm re-thinking my next wheel build from this.

Thanks for the info.

This is the axle fault. There was only the bearing at the end ef the freewheel and the one at the disk in contact with the axle. The one at the left right flange of the wheel is unsupported. I'm sure it can happen with a normal axle but the maxle light is a bad design.
It would need to be something like this and it would solve the problem:
---___---_________---
__ ---___----------___

Sam B said:

That will happen to a 12mm Hope hub even without a taperred down axle. I have had two of them do that.

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I've seen it happen too, I believe it's from axle flex under high loads, but this axle design is just so dumb it boggles the mind. Seriously cannot believe a product so absolutely ****house still exists in 2010. The central bearing in a rear hub takes a LOT of load, because the freehub body is not well-attached to the hub body in terms of axial bending. The Maxle also comes loose far too easily, and the part that snapped on the old one hasn't been changed on the new ones.

eater said:

i have ride this axle one year with the old maxle no problem since i change to the light version 2mt later it brakes...

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Yep, I had pretty much exactly the same experience. Think it lasted oh, about 3 days of riding with the new maxle.

SRAM: if you're listening, please cut the bull**** and make an axle that doesn't suck anywhere near as hard as the current rear Maxle does. The axle is 5000 year old technology and if you can't get this right it really says something about your ability to make basic stuff work.

Socket said:

I've seen it happen too, I believe it's from axle flex under high loads, but this axle design is just so dumb it boggles the mind. Seriously cannot believe a product so absolutely ****house still exists in 2010. The central bearing in a rear hub takes a LOT of load, because the freehub body is not well-attached to the hub body in terms of axial bending. The Maxle also comes loose far too easily, and the part that snapped on the old one hasn't been changed on the new ones.

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Im not sure that part you are referring to that snapped - if it is the part im thinking of - there is now a small radius on the end of the split to allow for the axle to expand into the LH dropout instead of a pinch bolt

Before it was a huge stress riser when screwing the maxle up.. also probably limited the amount of expansion.. Now I find that they don’t snap as easily and no longer unwind...

I haven’t seen any snap just yet from bearing load - but I can see if the hub uses a light weight axle that relies on support from a solid through axle there could be problems..

IMO it works better than the last version - but with the hub/s I use

Sam B said:

That will happen to a 12mm Hope hub even without a taperred down axle. I have had two of them do that.

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I think it's a function of poor frame axle design rather than the hub itself. Overbuilt hubs would handle it better, but they shouldn't have to.

I've been running the Pro II (12mm) on an IH sunday for 3 years and the hub is still mint. The IH uses a proper through axle, solid aluminium with 2 pinchbolts.

So I guess the verdict would be, either buy a frame with a good axle configuration, or buy a heavier hub. Take your pick.

BikeFan84 said:

Skip the hope junk ( and by this I mean their hub products, haven't had any good luck with any of them in the last 12 years.

Their brakes on the other hand are awesome.

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Exact opposite here!

Gary said:

Exact opposite here!

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Same here wouldn't used there brakes if they paid me well maybe i would. Never had a problem with there hubs myself and wouldn't use anything but them.

Gary said:

Exact opposite here!

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Bingo; what was in his pipe?

Everything but the brakes (Which are shiny as hell and work great sometimes)

So hub manufaturers can blame Rockshox for making the Maxle too weak and Rockshox can blame hub manufacturers for having a weak axle?

I think the axle should be able to suport itself as long as you have bearing support at each end and the Maxle can hold enough tension to stop the rear triangle from flexing.

Okay so to highjack a bit.... my new trailbike (Marin) has the option of 135x12 maxle dropouts. I thought that was great - I'd build a wheelset to suit, coz I hate QR's anyway. So now what do I do?
What hub should I choose? Was really thinking WTB or Hope.... Not that keen on the spend/weight of hadley/king. Or do I just use old(?) maxles? Ive never really played with maxles, had no need until now. Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

weedkilla said:

Okay so to highjack a bit.... my new trailbike (Marin) has the option of 135x12 maxle dropouts. I thought that was great - I'd build a wheelset to suit, coz I hate QR's anyway. So now what do I do?
What hub should I choose? Was really thinking WTB or Hope.... Not that keen on the spend/weight of hadley/king. Or do I just use old(?) maxles? Ive never really played with maxles, had no need until now. Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

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hadleys are strong, and if you find the right wheelbuilder, they are cheap enough. i just got a pimpy DH wheelset (gold hadley 150 X 12 rear, gold hope pro II front, DT FR600, DT comp spokes, brass nips) for a little over $500.

has that happen to a set of my pro 2s too. and it was not with a maxle set up.

got a replacement axle for the hub and good news is that hope have changed the design. the conical section has a lower taper. makes sense as that is where the highest bending moment of the shaft is.

Sam B said:

That will happen to a 12mm Hope hub even without a taperred down axle. I have had two of them do that.

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Man, I've been running Hopes for like 3? years now on both of my bikes and definitely haven't had that issue. Broke a couple frames in that time! Not saying you haven't, because of course I know that you have; just saying that not all Hopes are pre-destined for immediate failure.

For reference, I'm one of only a handful of riders I know of that are heavier than Sam, at 250lbs vs his pinner 200+. He does ride more often than I do and beats me at races, but I reckon I break more bike parts than he does!

And I do not think that Hadleys are the solution. In my 8 years in working in shops, I have spent way more time inside Hadleys than any other hub, despite there being far fewer of them on the market than many others. I think they're a great hub for someone that lives in a dry area, or someone that doesn't mind frequent service intervals, but everything is just too finicky inside and doesn't respond well to outside contaminants.